Liliane Lijn

With harrowing intimacy, Lijn’s account reveals her experiences in an era when sexism was the norm. Meeting William Burroughs, Man Ray, Méret Oppenheim, and so many others, Lijn cut a path across American, British, and European postwar art scenes, even while her search for self-driven meaning was continually thwarted by this masculine milieu

A beautifully written memoir by one of the most important and original artists working today. It's not simply a record of the evolution of an artist, but a testament to the strength of spirit and imagination that allowed Lijn to develop her artwork in the face of structural sexism. I found her story utterly gripping, enraging, entertaining – and important. I can't recommend it highly enough

Liliane Lijn has been a unique and self-renewing force of creativity for six decades, amounting to an exceptional and unclassifiable career as a visual artist in many media, as well as a poet and a thinker

In 1958, talented and fearless and eighteen years old, Liliane Lijn left her family home and moved to Paris alone to become an artist. Once there, she found an art world filled with the wild energy of creative revolution – peopled and controlled almost entirely by men. 
 
In the years that followed, Lijn built a life for herself in the city. She embraced the hectic bohemian spirit of the Left Bank. She befriended artists, painters, poets, gallerists and revolutionaries, as the late Surrealists gave way to a burgeoning Pop Art movement. She had disastrous love affairs with difficult men. She experimented boldly, creating ground-breaking sculptures with light, text and movement. And as her profile steadily grew, she was told again and again that there are no great women artists: ‘There never have been.’ 
 
Liquid Reflections is her memoir of these years of experiment and adventure – years when Lijn was constantly in motion, from Paris to New York to Venice to Athens, from paper and canvas to wax and Perspex to oil and water. In love, she became pregnant but rebelled against the idea that a woman could not be both a great artist and a mother. 
 
And she sought – and found – radical pleasure in the act of creative expression and in the living, sensuous world around her. 
 
Based on personal diaries from the time, this is a riveting and revelatory account of a singular coming of age: a glittering portrait of the artist as a young woman. 
 
'I wrote LIQUID REFLECTIONS because I wanted to take my readers on the journey I made to become an artist. It's the story of an idealistic, inspired young woman who refuses to accept the prejudices of her time. Becoming an artist was also a search for my own identity…’ Liliane Lijn

Liliane Lijn

Praise for Liquid Reflections

With harrowing intimacy, Lijn’s account reveals her experiences in an era when sexism was the norm. Meeting William Burroughs, Man Ray, Méret Oppenheim, and so many others, Lijn cut a path across American, British, ...

A beautifully written memoir by one of the most important and original artists working today. It's not simply a record of the evolution of an artist, but a testament to the strength of spirit and imagination that al ...

Liliane Lijn has been a unique and self-renewing force of creativity for six decades, amounting to an exceptional and unclassifiable career as a visual artist in many media, as well as a poet and a thinker

With harrowing intimacy, Lijn’s account reveals her experiences in an era when sexism was the norm. Meeting William Burroughs, Man Ray, Méret Oppenheim, and so many others, Lijn cut a path across American, British, ...

A beautifully written memoir by one of the most important and original artists working today. It's not simply a record of the evolution of an artist, but a testament to the strength of spirit and imagination that al ...

Liliane Lijn has been a unique and self-renewing force of creativity for six decades, amounting to an exceptional and unclassifiable career as a visual artist in many media, as well as a poet and a thinker

With harrowing intimacy, Lijn’s account reveals her experiences in an era when sexism was the norm. Meeting William Burroughs, Man Ray, Méret Oppenheim, and so many others, Lijn cut a path across American, British, ...

A beautifully written memoir by one of the most important and original artists working today. It's not simply a record of the evolution of an artist, but a testament to the strength of spirit and imagination that al ...

Liliane Lijn has been a unique and self-renewing force of creativity for six decades, amounting to an exceptional and unclassifiable career as a visual artist in many media, as well as a poet and a thinker

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter